I am sure these types of questions get asked all the time, i have looked in the FAQs already, but I am confused about which SLR to buy.

For background, I am looking to get into one simply to take better looking pictures of the family and such. We have gotten by with a cheap camera for a long time but after seeing the pictures that were taken by others with their SLRs, it just makes sense to upgrade seeing as how much better the quality is. I have spoken to these friends and they have Canons with 15 mps. Our main goals would be to have a camera with faster shutter speed as we are constantly missing "good photos" of our children as they move before the picture is taken.

After looking at various cameras online, and being thoroughly confused, i wanted to see if someone could give me some common sense advice. We are not professional photographers. How many mp do we need? What else should we look for?

Thanks in advance.